palaver
A village council meetingA village council meeting.
» We have no time to waste in idle palaver.
Мы не можем тратить время на праздную болтовню. — Ooneykcall
Ooneykcall · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
6 senses(Africa, countable, uncountable)A village council meeting.
(UK, countable, uncountable)Mentally draining activity, either physical or fuss.
What a palaver!
геморройgemorroj
(countable, uncountable)A meeting at which there is much talk; a debate; a moot.
(countable, informal, uncountable)Disagreement.
I have no palaver with him.
(countable, uncountable)Talk intended to deceive.
flattery intended to persuade
(Canada, US, archaic, countable, uncountable)Talk, especially unnecessary talk; chatter.
Palaver
пу́стая болтовня́pústaja boltovnjá, пра́здная болтовня́prázdnaja boltovnjá
loud and confused and empty talk
Examples
2 sentencesWe have no time to waste in idle palaver.
ruМы не можем тратить время на праздную болтовню. — Ooneykcall
What a palaver!
ruКакая суматоха! — Ooneykcall
deWas für ein Zirkus! — Dani6187
Translations
6 languagesBy meaning 3
By meaning 1
Origin
Originally nautical slang, from Portuguese palavra (“word”), from Late Latin parabola (“paOriginally nautical slang, from Portuguese palavra (“word”), from Late Latin parabola (“parable, speech”). The term's use (especially in Africa) mimics the evolution of the word moot. As such, for sense development, see moot. Doublet of parable, parole, and parabola.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: palaversSynonyms
128 synonyms- loud and confused and empty talk:hot airempty wordsempty talkrhetoric
- flattery intended to persuade:blandishmentcajolery
Word family
6 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.